Are you blowing your fuses ?

The purpose of the fuse box in our house, our car or any other equipment or structure with electricity is to prevent an overload of the system. If there’s more demand on an area than the system can handle, the fuse is tripped and shut down before a bigger problem occurs. The same thing happens in our body.

Our spine and nerve system operate much like a fuse box. When there is an overload to the system (to our body), the fuse is tripped and subluxation occurs, altering nerve flow to an area. This is a protective mechanism the body has developed, however, if the cause of the problem isn’t detected and the switch isn’t thrown back into the proper position, the power stays shut down.

What causes the overload that blows the circuits? What causes subluxation?

Subluxations are caused by physical, chemical and mental/emotional stresses that our bodies can’t adapt to.

Physical stresses are the easiest to understand. An accident, a fall, a blow to the body can all cause an overwhelming stress and subluxation. Occupational stresses (the way we do what we do) also cause subluxation. If you’re consistently in one position for an extended period of time or if you use your body in an imbalanced way over and over again, you’ll cause an imbalance in the muscles which can cause or contribute to subluxation. Postural stresses are another major factor in subluxation.

Chemical stresses cause more overload than we realize. The quality of the food we eat, the water we drink and the air we breathe, all contribute to the state of our health. Toxins in our food, water and air overload our system and cause imbalances in the nerve system and the muscles which cause and contribute to subluxation. All drugs have some toxic effect on the body, so although they may achieve their intended result, they also create additional imbalance in the body.

Mental/emotional stresses also change our body physiology and cause or contribute to subluxation. Research tells us that when we are in a situation we perceive as dangerous, certain changes occur in our body—our breathing changes, our muscles tense, our heart rate changes, certain hormones are released. Unfortunately, the body goes through almost the same physiological changes if we are in an actual life threatening situation or if we are just imagining bad things happening to us. If we live in this "stressed out" state long enough, we overload the system.

In this day and age there are many things which overload our fuse boxes and cause subluxations in our body. Thankfully, we can reduce or eliminate this problem with regular chiropractic care. Getting adjusted on a regular basis not only throws the switches back in place when they’ve been blown, it helps our body become stronger and more resilient so the switches don’t get blown as easily in the first place.